{"id":2024,"date":"2006-12-18T14:50:12","date_gmt":"2006-12-18T21:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2024"},"modified":"2021-07-18T22:46:52","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T05:46:52","slug":"strait-jacket-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2024","title":{"rendered":"Strait-Jacket (1964)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Lucy Harbin took an axe, gave her husband forty whacks.<br \/>\nWhen she saw what she had done, she gave his girlfriend forty-one!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Poster-155x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"155\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Poster-155x300.jpg 155w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Poster-66x128.jpg 66w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 155px) 100vw, 155px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nLucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) has spent twenty years in an insane asylum for murdering her husband (Lee Majors) and his girlfriend (Patricia Crest) in a fit of jealous rage. When she returns home, her estranged daughter (Diane Baker) tries to conceal her mother&#8217;s past from her soon-to-be in-laws (Edith Atwater and Howard St. John), but a mysterious rash of murders makes this increasingly difficult.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>George Kennedy Films<\/li>\n<li>Horror<\/li>\n<li>Joan Crawford Films<\/li>\n<li>Mental Illness<\/li>\n<li>William Castle Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nWilliam Castle&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5177\"><em>Psycho<\/em><\/a>-esque slasher flick, starring Joan Crawford in one of her last great roles, is undeniably campy, yet contains a surprising amount of atmosphere and thrills.  Crawford &#8212; who gives 110 percent, as always &#8212; is compulsively watchable, and elicits both genuine sympathy and fear, as she shifts smoothly from axe-wielding hysterics to insecure neurotics. Equally impressive is Diane Baker as Crawford&#8217;s daughter, whose desperate desire to pursue a &#8220;normal&#8221; life with her fiance-to-be (John Anthony Hayes) causes her to apply some seriously dangerous denial tactics. As in <em>Psycho<\/em>, the final plot twist in <em>Strait-Jacket<\/em> is guaranteed to come as a surprise, and places the characters&#8217; previous actions in an entirely different light. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> Crawford apparently maintained creative control over nearly every aspect of the movie, including the script (by Robert Bloch, author of <em>Psycho<\/em>) and casting (Baker was brought on at the last minute as a replacement, while Crawford promised the role of Lucy&#8217;s doctor to a member of the Pepsi-Cola board &#8212; Mitchell Cox &#8212; with zero film experience).  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joan Crawford as the unpredictable yet oddly sympathetic axe murderess<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-57751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford.jpg 853w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Strait-Jacket-Crawford-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Crawford lighting a match off of a spinning jazz record<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Lighting.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Lighting.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2021\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Beautiful Diane Baker as Lucy&#8217;s loyal daughter<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Baker.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Baker.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2022\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Some genuinely scary moments<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Axe.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Axe.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2023\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>A surprising twist ending<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes. This camp classic is a definitive entry in Crawford&#8217;s late-life movie career, and should be seen by all film fanatics. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0058620\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moria.co.nz\/horror\/straitjacket.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Lucy Harbin took an axe, gave her husband forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave his girlfriend forty-one!&#8221; Synopsis: Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) has spent twenty years in an insane asylum for murdering her husband (Lee Majors) and his girlfriend (Patricia Crest) in a fit of jealous rage. When she returns home, her estranged daughter (Diane Baker) tries to conceal her mother&#8217;s past from her soon-to-be in-laws (Edith Atwater and Howard St. John), but a mysterious&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2024\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2024"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74108,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions\/74108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}